In providing cellular communication services, a service provider may provide a cellular service in more than one of the allocated cellular frequency bands in a coverage area. Among competing reasons for having multiple frequency bands in one coverage area, limited capacity of each frequency band to support potential number of mobile users is notable. Moreover, a service provider may offer multiple frequency bands for competing revenue generating reasons. To take advantage of multiple frequency bands, mobile stations normally should have capability to operate in one or more of the frequency bands. However, such multiband capability in a mobile station is not enough to take full advantage of the services. Due to lack of specific protocols, the mobile stations normally access a cellular system without screening for a preferred frequency band. A frequency band, as such, may be used by the mobile stations to its maximum capacity threshold while other preferred congestion free frequency bands remain under utilized. Since there is no specific protocol for assigning or directing mobile stations to a preferred frequency band, the cellular communication system capacity, and the service provider financial revenues are compromised.
Therefore, where cellular services in multiple frequency bands are offered, there is a need for a method and apparatus of directing the mobile stations to a preferred frequency band resource.